Kim Il Sung

November 20, 2018 - 0 Comments

Kim Il Sung was the pseudonym for Kim Song Ju. He was born on April 15, 1912, atMangyongdae, Pyongyang, to a poor peasant family. He and his family emigrated toManchuria in the 1920’s like many Korean families did at the time. His familywas a most patriotic and revolutionary one, and fought for many generations,from the beginning of the modern revolutionary movement of the Korean people forthe independence of the country. He grew up receiving his revolutionaryeducation at home, and acquiring a revolutionary outlook on the world throughstudy and revolutionary practice. In Manchuria, he attended a Chinese school. Herallied young students around revolutionary organizations, and educated andtrained them through struggles against the Japanese. He organized the YoungCommunist League of Korea on August 28, 1927, and was arrested and imprisonedfor a year by the Chinese authorities for having done so. After his release fromjail in 1930, he formed the first Party organization at Kalun with youngcommunists of the new generation whom he had trained, and it was the firstorganization to be the glorious origin of the Workers’ Party of Korea which wereformed later. Afterwards, he organized the Korean Revolutionary Army, which wasthe first armed organization of the Korean communists that fought against theJapanese military. In 1931, he left for the hills of eastern Manchuria to join aChinese Communist guerrilla group fighting the Japanese military in Manchuria.

On April 25, 1932, he founded the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, the firststanding revolutionary armed force of the Korean people, and became itscommander. Between the years 1932 to 1941, he led a band of Korean guerrillasagainst Japanese positions in Manchuria. It was during this time that he assumedthe pseudonym Kim Il Sung, the name of a legendary resistance fighter thatcaused the Japanese a lot of trouble. In 1941, Japanese counterinsurgency forcesforced him to leave Manchuria for the Soviet Union. He remained there, and cameback to Korea in 1945. On August 15, 1945, he achieved national liberation fromJapanese colonial rule. Having received direct Soviet encouragement, he stroveto unify Korea into a communism. After the creation of the Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea in 1948, not only did he became the head of the KoreanWorkers’ Party (unified political party of the working masses), but also becamethe Premier of the communist state (the Head of State). He made the fatefuldecision to launch a major military campaign to unify Korea under force of arms,and at 4 a.m. on June 25, 1950, he started the Korean War (a war between NorthKorea and South Korea). He led postwar economic reconstruction and the laying ofthe foundations of socialism with great wisdom. He also effected the agrarianreform, nationalization of industries and other democratic reforms, and thusvictoriously carried out the revolution in the northern half of Korea in a shortperiod of time. After the war, he continued the trend towards one-man rule. Hesucceeded in developing a cult of personality with himself to strengthen hisauthority. In the post Korean War years, he developed the idea of “Juche”,and ideology of self-reliance blended with Marxism, thus creating a distinctnative Korean communism. And in 1994, at the age of 82, he died. Kim Il Sung wasan autocratic leader in many ways. In order to prepare for a future war, he madelittle kids learn military combat skill since they enter elementary school. Itwas mandatory for all men to serve the arm forces for ten years. People who hadnot serve the arm forces because of some reasons, or people who had not attendedKim Il Sung University were assigned the most dangerous and hardest jobs. Sinceno one was allowed to own a private property, they did not have the motivationto work. In order make people work, and strengthen the industries andagriculture, he created things called “A horse that can run 1000Li/hr”, and “Seeing stars exercise”. “A horse that can run1000 Li/hr” means that there is a horse that can run 250km/hr. He toldpeople that this horse can run 1000 Li/hr because it runs with all its strength,and forced them to work intensely with all their strength. “Seeing starsexercise” means that you start working when the stars are out, and stopworking until the stars are out again. He forced people to work every early inthe morning when the stars are out till when it was dark again. He also severelypunished or killed people who had religions (Ideology Criminals), people whoopposed to his political opinions (Political Criminals), and people whocriticized him. These people were not allowed to get married, nor have babies.

And in many cases, in order to satisfy their lust, they had sexual intercoursewith their family members. Kim Il Sung developed a system called “5 HouseSurveillance System”. It is a system that families of every five housesobserve each other to see if there is any Ideology Criminal, Political Criminal,or anyone criticizing him. Any person who reported the Criminal to theauthorities was rewarded, and was given more opportunity to become a member ofthe Party of Communist. Kim Il Sung also made people hang his picture in theirhouses. If his picture was crooked not dusted, or not hanged, they were accusedof being a Political Criminal. Once a one-man rule of his own was secured, KimIl Sung also began to develop a personality cult in order to strengthen hisauthority. He had to make up stories that his forefathers were anti-Japanesefighters, and deify himself in order to make North Koreans believe him to be aman of great personality. In the days of the Japanese colonial rues of Korea, henever participated in real combats, although he was a Soviet army captainbelonging to the 88 Special Reconnaissance Brigade. Yet, he claimed that for 15years, he participated in more than 100,000 battles (over 20 battles a day) andwon victories, even forging mystic stories that he turned sand into rice andcrossed rivers on a leaflet as if he were an almighty deity. To justify hisfabricated past, he appointed so-called revolutionary war sites (7 places) andhistoric sites (34 places) throughout all North Korea, and every year he urgedall the people to make expeditionary marches to those places. He even orderedthe building of over 40,000 Kim Il Sung’s Revolutionary Thought study rooms forthe indoctrination of the people. Furthermore, he had over 70 bronze statues andover 20,000 plaster busts erected all over the country, and had more than 20diverse kinds of Kim Il Sung badges manufactured and worn by the peopleaccording to their class. He designated his birthday as the greatest nationalholiday, and observed his birthday by spending hundreds of millions of dollarsevery year. Even after his death, the North Korean authorities had his bodymummified and laid in a coffin at the super-deluxe Kumsusan Memorial Palace toprolong the personality cult under the pretext that he is immortal andimperishable. Moreover, indoctrination programs designed to teach the people toworship him begin from nursery school. The curriculum of primary schoolsincludes 304 hours of such indoctrination in two subjects, and that of seniorhigh schools includes 567 hours in four subjects. Other textbooks such as KoreanLanguage, Geography, and Nature are also full of contents designed to deify KimIl Sung: about 40% of the entire content in primary school textbooks, and 43% ofthose in senior high schools. About 57% of music education in primary schools,and 48% of that in senior high schools are devoted music that promotes theworship of Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang maintains 6departments specializing in Kim Il Sung. They include the Department of Kim IlSung’s Revolutionary History, and the Department of Kim Il Sung’s Works. Inconclusion, Kim Il Sung, through his leadership style, was able to rule hiscountry for over 40 years, but there were also many negative consequences. Hisleadership was mostly based on “control” and “surveillance”.

Although this made him a one-man ruler, there were many people who escaped toSouth Korea, and many people who wanted to kill him. Even the “real”creator of “Juche Ideology” ran away to South Korea. I think that thiskind of leadership might work at first, but in the long run, will be disastrousand create negative consequences.